Is­lay coun­cil­lor urged to meet with ICC

I write in re­sponse to Coun­cil­lor Red­man’s let­ter to The Oban Times (7 Septem­ber 2017). I un­der­stand that the de­ci­sion to with­draw some sup­port to Trust Hous­ing on Is­lay was made in 2011 by Ar­gyll and Bute Coun­cil long be­fore the Health and Care Part­ner­ship was set up to de­liver in­te­grated care.

Maybe in­stead of ar­gu­ing against a de­ci­sion made some years ago and, in­ci­den­tally, brings Is­lay into line with all other Trust Hous­ing pol­icy across Scot­land, Coun­cil­lor Red­man could make a con­struc­tive con­tri­bu­tion to how we can all pro­vide care for peo­ple liv­ing in their own homes or in sup­ported ac­com­mo­da­tion.

This plan­ning is al­ready un­der way in the Is­lay and Jura Lo­cal­ity Plan­ning group to min­imise the dis­rup­tion to the lives of res­i­dents and their fam­i­lies.

I gather Coun­cil­lor Red­man was in­vited to the Is­lay Com­mu­nity Coun­cil to ex­plain his role on the in­te­grated joint board and his views on health and so­cial care but un­for­tu­nately he didn’t at­tend. Could I sug­gest that he con­tacts the ICC to try and ar­range an­other date? As an in­ter­ested mem­ber of the pub­lic I would like to hear his views.

Could I also sug­gest he thinks again about re­ly­ing on stock la­bels such as sep­a­ratist and union­ist and thinks about peo­ple as hu­man be­ings and con­stituents. Maybe he could also re­flect on the mean­ing of the word democ­racy. A. Humphreys Port Askaig, Is­lay